So sorry for my lapse in days, things were crazy what with a birthday and service projects and weekend.... But I am here now, and have a plan.
I gave a talk in my church on Sunday about the true spirit of Christmas, and I thought that for today's post, I would share it with you.
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When I was a child, I was so excited by everything about Christmas. Christmas lights, Christmas songs, Christmas trees, Christmas cookies, letters to Santa, everything. Not much has changed as I’ve grown up. But there was one year when I was about ten that I was terrified of Christmas being completely ruined.
For one, it was raining. It shouldn’t rain on Christmas.
For two, we were changing our Christmas Eve tradition by going over to someone else’s house for dinner and the Nativity. You just don’t mess with tradition.
And finally….because when we got back to our house on that rainy, nontraditional Christmas Eve, all of the lights were out, the garage door wasn’t working, and we did not have a house key.
I was horrified. All of our presents were inside the house. The stockings, the cinnamon rolls, the Christmas cookies, the new pajamas we hadn’t opened yet…how could it be Christmas if we didn’t get to
have Christmas?
Thankfully, one of my parents has to have a window open if the temperatures are not sub-arctic, and so their window was cracked. My dad hoisted my brother up onto the roof and he crawled to the window, lifted it open, and promptly fell into the room. He opened the front door and we all went inside, and Christmas was saved.
I’ve thought about that Christmas Eve a lot since then. I knew that it would still be Christmas even if we were trapped in our car, in the rain, without any of my normal Christmas stuff, but that meant very little to me. I wanted the stuff.
Time and time again as I remember that Christmas, I remember another Christmas. One that was also different.
We had finished dinner and were getting ready to put all of the presents under our tree when my parents told us they were changing things. We were all to go to our rooms and find three things we could give away. Confused, but obedient, we did so. When we came back down, they told us there was family in our ward who would not be getting Christmas presents. They asked us to look at our toys and see if we would be willing to give them to this family. We agreed, and in some cases ran back upstairs to get something better, and then got in the car and drove to the house. To this day, I do not know the family’s name, and I could not tell you where they lived. But I will never forget going up the porch, sneaking just as quietly as I could, and leaving my presents on the porch with the rest of the toys, food, and other presents, ringing the doorbell, and then running for our lives back to our car. That was a Christmas I treasure, not because someone else got to get stuff, even though they did. What I treasure is the feeling I had as I ran back to the car, knowing that I had given something without expecting anything in return. It wasn't the stuff; it was the gift.
Christmas is not, and has never been, about “stuff”, though we tend to forget that amidst the hustle and bustle of the season.
It brings to mind one of my favorite movies, and stories, of Christmas. The Grinch. In trying to ruin Christmas, he stole everything from the Who’s. Every hint of Christmas was gone. Then he waited for the reactions on Christmas morning and found that instead of mourning their loss, they rejoiced. “He hadn’t stopped Christmas. It came! Somehow or other, it came just the same. And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling. “How could it be so? It came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes, or bags!” And he puzzled and puzzled, til his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more”.
It
does mean more! Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of our Savior, to rejoice in his life and his ministry and the miracle of the Atonement, the greatest gift of all.
Pres. Monson: Brothers and sisters, this joyful season brings to all of us a measure of happiness that corresponds to the degree to which we have turned our minds, feelings, and actions to the Savior, whose birth we celebrate.
I firmly believe that the magic of the holiday season happens because for this period of time, we are more focused on Him. We are more kind to each other, we are giving and generous, we take up these traditions that are wonderful and peaceful, and we call it the Spirit of Christmas. We mourn when the season ends, and we always wish it would come back.
I learned a long time ago that we should keep Christmas with us all through the year. I never really understood how I could do that. And then President Monson said this in the devotional last week: “When we keep the spirit of Christmas, we keep the spirit of Christ, for the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit.”
Isn’t that what we promised when we were baptized and when we take the sacrament each week? That we would have his spirit to be with us? When we turn our hearts towards the Savior, and towards our fellow man, we will have the Spirit of Christmas because we have the spirit of Christ. Christmas should be a reminder to all of us of how we should be all year round.
A few years ago, President Monson shared this story, and I wanted to share part of it with you. In December of 1970, an ice storm came through the south. Passengers were stranded on their way home for Christmas. One gate in the Atlanta airport was particularly crowded. The last flight of the night, and probably for the next 24 hours, was to New Orleans and everyone was trying to get on it. Not many were having success. One who was unconcerned was businessman in a fine tailored gray-flannel suit, who sat working, knowing he was secured on this flight.
"A young man in military uniform, no more than 19 years old, was in animated conversation with the desk agent. The boy held a low-priority ticket. He pleaded with the agent to help him get to New Orleans so that he could take the bus to the obscure Louisiana village he called home.
The agent wearily told him the prospects were poor for the next 24 hours, maybe longer. The boy grew frantic. Immediately after Christmas his unit was to be sent to Vietnam—where at that time war was raging—and if he didn’t make this flight, he might never again spend Christmas at home. Even the businessman looked up from his cryptic computations to show a guarded interest. The agent clearly was moved, even a bit embarrassed. But he could only offer sympathy—not hope. The boy stood at the departure desk, casting anxious looks around the crowded room as if seeking just one friendly face.
Finally the agent announced that the flight was ready for boarding. The travelers, who had been waiting long hours, heaved themselves up, gathered their belongings, and shuffled down the small corridor to the waiting aircraft: twenty, thirty, a hundred—until there were no more seats. The agent turned to the frantic young soldier and shrugged.
Inexplicably, the businessman had lingered behind. Now he stepped forward. “I have a confirmed ticket,” he quietly told the agent. “I’d like to give my seat to this young man.” The agent stared incredulously; then he motioned to the soldier. Unable to speak, tears streaming down his face, the boy in olive drab shook hands with the man in the gray flannel suit, who simply murmured, “Good luck. Have a fine Christmas. Good luck.”
As the plane door closed and the engines began their rising whine, the businessman turned away, clutching his briefcase, and trudged toward the all-night restaurant."
What is Christmas really about? I turn to the simplest and truest words, which I learned from an unexpected spiritual moment in a Charlie Brown Christmas. He cries out, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” And then his friend Linus says this: “Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” “And there were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about him. And they were sore afraid, but the angel said unto them “Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth, Peace, goodwill towards men.” Then he turns back and says, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
That is what Christmas is all about. It’s what it has always, and will always, be about.
President Uchtdorf, “We do not need a Christmas holiday or Christmas traditions to remember Jesus Christ, the Savior. … May each Christmas season remind us to lift up our voices and fill our hearts with joy and gratitude that Christ the King has come! Christ lives! He is real. He is our Redeemer at Christmas and always.”
